There are two companies that offer airlines solutions for selling space available upgrades; Optiontown and Plusgrade. Most of the major airlines handle this function in-house, but smaller airlines rely to these two providers. Goal is obviously to extract more revenue out of business and first class seats.

Last week, I was flying from Bangkok to Hanoi on Vietnam Airlines and had booked myself in economy. The flight is short and not worth paying anything extra for short haul business class seat.[click to continue…]

Copa, Star Alliance member airline based in Panama, has started to offer an option to bid for business class upgrades on its flights. This service if provided to the airline by Plusgrade. You can read more about this on Copa’s website here.

Copa uses United’s Mileage Plus as its frequent flier program and grants complimentary status based upgrades on its flights for Mileage Plus elite members (GS/1K/PLT/1P and Silver).[click to continue…]